CENTERTON -- The starts were good for Bentonville West's volleyball team in its inaugural home match, but the finishes left a little to be desired.
The Lady Wolverines held signficant leads in the first two sets Tuesday night, only to have Webb City, Mo., rally both times and wind up with a 3-0 sweep at Wolverine Gymnasium.
"I'm not really sure where to put the blame," West coach Julie Rowan said after the 25-22, 25-21, 25-17 loss. "Number one is the lack of experience, and it's going to plague us all year.
"I need to start wrapping my mind around that and figuring out smaller goals for us. We can play better ball than that, but that inexperience is going to plague us. Our energy level falls after a couple of lost points."
The Lady Wolverines (1-6) held a 17-10 led in the first set after a kill by freshman Kortney Puckett before Webb City (2-1) went on an 11-2 run and took a 21-19 lead. West took advantage of Webb City errors to regain a 22-21 edge, only to have the Lady Cardinals scored the next four points for the win.
West then had a 17-11 advantage in the second set after Jayden Lindsey's ace before Webb City made another comeback. The Lady Cardinals scored eight of the last nine points in the second to move ahead and eventually take the lead.
"Number one, when we do get in a slump, we have to get our setters to choose better options," Rowan said. "Number two, none of the girls feel like they're the terminating point. Kortney Puckett had some good swings, but we couldn't get the ball to her consistently enough to let her swing.
"When we were passing poorly, one bad pass led to five bad passes and we have our best passers on the court. They just don't have the mental toughness quite yet to fight through, so we will work on it."
The Lady Wolverines' only lead in the third set came on the opening point as Webb City scored the next five points. West briefly pulled within 9-8, but the Lady Cardinals scored seven of the next eight points to pull away.
West opens 7A-West Conference play Thursday with a home match against Van Buren.
Rogers High def. Carl Junction, Mo., 3-2
Hannah Martin and Maddie Tauai both tallied double-doubles to lead Rogers High to hard-fought 3-2 (16-25, 25-18, 21-25, 25-19, 15-11) win over Carl Junction, Mo., on Tuesday night.
Martin finished with a team-best 19 kills and 11 digs, while Tauai added 14 kills and 10 digs for the Lady Mounties, who improved to 3-0. Kassidy Wall chipped in 13 kills. Alex Parish (seven) and Emily Harris (six) combined for 13 blocks. Anna Randels also had a team-high 14 digs.
The Lady Mounties open 7A-West Conference play on Thursday by hosting Springdale Har-Ber.
Sports on 08/31/2016